Welcome to the natural wonder that is The Weather!

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You will complete a four-lesson WebQuest which will culminate in you, in a group of four, presenting a three (3) minute weather report explaining the weather events in the last seven days for each of the five major cities (Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide) in Lesson Four. In order to complete this final task, you will need to finish the activities in the the first three lessons:

Lesson One:
Australia's Climatic Zones
  • You will be allocated a city for the weather presentation.
  • Discover Australia's different climates: Temperate, Mediterranean, Arid, Subtropical and Semi-arid.
  • Distinguish the characteristics of different climates in Australia and find which climate your city falls under.

Lesson Two:
Recording the Weather
  • Interpret synoptic charts
  • Record observational data from given cities (Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide) and calculate one-week averages of minimum and maximum temperatures, rainfall and sunshine.

Lesson Three:
Extreme Weather Events in Australia
  • Uncover the stories behind the major weather events in recent Australian history: Cyclone Tracy (1974), Millennium Drought (2000s), Perth Hailstorm (2010), Queensland Floods (2010-11) and Black Saturday Bushfires (2009).
  • Find the causes of these major events

Lesson Four:
Presenting the Findings
  • Groups are given an outlined map of their observational area and are given time to create their report to present in class on the electronic whiteboard.
  • Each city's weather is to be presented by each group for a period of no more than three minutes.

You will use current vocabulary, grammar, listening and reading comprehension skills to learn about climates, weather observations and chart analysis.

You will also need creative writing and public speaking skills to present your segment of the weather report.